On a Windows Vista or Vindows 7 disk, all versions of the operating system are present, from Starter to Ultimate, and everything in between. So, if you want too upgrade to a more capable version of Windows down the road, all you need to do is pop the Windows disk in, let Windows Anytime Upgrade do its thing, and you're done. It seems like Intel is experimenting with a similar technology... For its processors.

They have been doing this with cpus and video cards for years. There are single core AMD cpus that can be unlocked into dual core cpus with a hack. It often makes economic sense to produce a single die and then place an artificial limitation on it to meet low-end demand without cutting into high-end margins.

The problem with that argument is that the customer pays more up front for the full featured chip and reaps the benefits immediately. There is no bait-and-switch involving activation codes purchased at almost pure profit. If you're okay with lower performance, you pay less. If you want more performance, you pay more. Either way, you get what you paid for the first time around.

The scam is in the fact that the hardware is deliberately crippled so as to force the customer to pay $50 for what is essentially a string of text in order to unlock what they already paid for once. And, as others have pointed out, this scam is possibly limited to Windows based machines, and perhaps is even a pure software switch so that if you have to reinstall the OS you lose your performance and must shell out another $50 to get it back. I'm sorry, but I'd feel much more comfortable knowing that my hardware's raw performance is not a variable based on a highly volatile software switch.

To put it another way, it's being forced to pay twice (or more) for one physical purchase. It's dirty and underhanded. Didn't Intel follow the Sony debacle?

The scam is in the fact that the hardware is deliberately crippled so as to force the customer to pay $50 for what is essentially a string of text in order to unlock what they already paid for once.

Well, this all depends on how it works. I mean, if the chip with all features unlocked is $100, but you can buy it crippled for $75 with an option to unlock the rest for $50 later on, then just buy it for $100 and be done with it.

In other words, I guess I don't have a problem with it, so long as there's an option to pay for it all up front and spend less than you would getting it piecemeal.

And, as others have pointed out, this scam is possibly limited to Windows based machines

The scam is in the fact that the hardware is deliberately crippled so as to force the customer to pay $50 for what is essentially a string of text in order to unlock what they already paid for once. And, as others have pointed out, this scam is possibly limited to Windows based machines, and perhaps is even a pure software switch so that if you have to reinstall the OS you lose your performance and must shell out another $50 to get it back. I'm sorry, but I'd feel much more comfortable knowing that my hardware's raw performance is not a variable based on a highly volatile software switch.

"The upgrade enables changes to the firmware (driven by the Intel Active Management Technology Management Engine in the chipset) that in turn modify the hardware."

From this I'd assume that changing/reinstalling the OS won't cause the "$50 unlock" to disappear. A firmware upgrade might (or might not) cause the "$50 unlock" to disappear (but I'm not too sure which firmware is modified - the normal/system firmware, or the Active Management Technology Management Engine's firmware).

I'm also unsure if only Windows can be used to unlock, or if you can use any OS to unlock. Intel say (same web page) that it's "architected to be highly flexible and should be compatible with most third-party management consoles"; but I'm not familiar with Active Management Technology and I'm not sure which management consoles exist for which OS/s; and to be perfectly honest, every time I try to unravel what "Active Management Technology" actually is I drown under a sea of seemingly unrelated buzz-words.

I wish I could mark your post "Informative", thank you for the legwork. I'm still pissed that they want to run a bait-and-switch game like this, but if the unlock is persistent in firmware it's not quite so galling.